JERUSALEM – Former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the spiritual leader of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Shas party, has sparked controversy after declaring that teachers who say the Earth is millions of years old should be arrested.
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In a sermon captured on video, Yosef rejected scientific dating methods and reaffirmed his belief that the world is less than 6,000 years old, as described in the Book of Genesis. “If there are teachers who explain that the world has existed for millions of years, arrest them!” he said, urging authorities to uphold what he described as Torah truth.
Yosef went on to predict that the Messiah will arrive in 15 years and that the world will end 200 years later, citing interpretations of Jewish texts to support his claim.
Thus is just lashon hara.
Regarding the teachers he says לעצור אותם.
Which means “stop them.” He goes on to explain how to correct their statements about the age of the world. I don’t know why you feel the need to make a gadol sound like a radical.
Why 15?
H’ is ready to give right now. The only obstacle is: are we ready to accept?
15 years??!! We await his coming everyday and ask for him to SPEEDILY!!!
15 years? Don’t know what he means , I know “one who knows don’t say and the one says doesn’t know “
It was never thy way of our גדולים to predict when משיח comes,
We hope it’s today
You are liars and idiots. He did not say to arrest them. He said not to be afraid to interrupt them. Please correct your mistake.
There are many ways to reconcile the different ages of the earth. So why not do that instead of looking for a fight?
He meant the latest
מורינו הרב יצחק יוסף אמת ותורתו אמת
I believe that there are many medrashim that state that the physical planet already existed and previous life was destroyed and breishis is the story of the current creation. So the earth could be millions of years old. Also the Torah is not a history book and the midrash says that the Torah starts with breishis to tell us that Hashem gave us Eretz Yisroel. So why quibble about a few years here and there?
HARAV yosef!! its disrespectful the way you write just the rav’s last name
When God created the world
Adam and Chava were created as adults
Nanyang trees were created as though they were old with many rings on them
God made tge world look deceivinglly old
So aa for us to believe in the Bible
Or what our minds perceive
As though we know something
KOL HAKAVOD!!!!
Rabbi Dr, Chavel, in the Mossad Rav Kook edition of Kitvei Ramban, writes the actual author of this work erroneously attributed to Ramban is rabbenu Yitzchok M’Acco. If so, Ramban himself and Ramban’s own opinion about what year the calendar actually is up to, do not have bearing on a date when Mashiach arrives based on this remez from Shir haShirim. There are so nasty comments on this website unbecoming of a Torah discussion, that perhaps those seeking Torah should seek it elsewhere. But i posted this comment to clarify the confusion for the perhaps civil reader who might come across it. bs”d
Should look in the ramban by the 430 in mitzraim if he did he would know that his calculation is off according to ramban and we passed a few years ago.
I guess that’s final. If Das Torah says within 15 years, who are we to argue.
check out the ramban its in shir hashirim end of the last perek on the passuk ha’alef lecha shlomo umasayim lanotrim or something along those lines and to the best of my memory the ramban says that 200 years before the year 6000 (14 btw not 15) years from now will be the latest time for techiyas hameisim I’m not sure why rabbi yosef interpreted that as mashiach’s arrival but assuming we see the resurrection of the dead and only the jewish dead I think the options of what happens next are pretty interesting and limited
5800 is a nice number
Some commenters state that the mabul which wiped out the world with boiling hot acid rain and stayed sunk for almost a year expedited the aging process of much that’s out there. Anyway it’s meaningless to predict numbers because someone who says it’s 10,000 years old or a million or 10 million are all speculating and have nothing to back anything. The correct answer is I don’t know
First days of creation could have passed extremely slowly, almost like millions of years by our modern measure. At that time, the gravitational pull from other planets was 0/minimal causing Earth to spin much slower. So the debate is really about different perspective or semantics. Was it 7 days at that slower pace, or millions of years by today’s speed?
The Jewish calendar begins with the creation of Adam. Each “day” could have been millions or billions of years.
What would you do if Mashiach turns out to be Sefardi? See Targum Yonasan to end of Sefer Ovadya. Shevet Binyamin exiles to Tzorfat (france/germany). Yehuda to Sforad.
Read Rashi by Noach and Avraham ZTL is mentioned in their lifetime. A keitz is a timeline like birthday or lehadil a yortziet. Many predicted a monumental auspicious time but retroactively it was another step forward but obviously we all yearn for the ultimate and complete and Final Redemption. Not for Behyita but Achishena particularly with the Mitzvah of Teshuva and Tzedakah which is always anchored by love your fellow Jew. As the Medrash says Eliyuhu Hanavi announces every day anavim anavim……
We want moshiach now! We want moshiach now! We dont wanna wait!!!!
Moshiach is already here. I spoke with him last week.
He works in a fellafel stand in Beis Yisroel.
I asked him why not reveal yourself.
He told me, let this generation shape up first.
It’s True. Really. Mr. Boaz Maschiach owns and runs a falafel kiosk in the “Turnstyle” mall at the subway train station on Columbus Circle in Manhattan. Give Parnossah to a Jew. Stop by for some falafel on your next train trip.
15 minutes sounds much better
15 years? So what to invest in? Stocks,bitcoin,gold,real estate?????
While the Ramban seems to take the “six days” of Briyas haOlam as six literal days, that is far from the universal consensus. Both the Rambam and Rashi – and, for those more mystically minded, the Zohar – seem to interpret the “days” as something other than a period of 24 hours. Accordingly, I find the statements quoted in the original article to be deeply problematic – the individual quoted is going against some of the major Rishonim in his statements, without even acknowledging that they exist. Is that the way of Torah?
Moshiach is here. open your eyes (and wallets)
Gotta wait another 15 years???!
I was under the belief it’s way more imminent.
What about people who say that the earth is flat.
There’s definitely an opinion that 200 years before 6000 is one of the later dates he can arrive so I don’t see a reason to get upset at him, but do I think the people will be ready in 15 years the way it’s going now? Absolutely not
can we survive 15 years with the Zionists in charge? we need moshiach now
And if a teacher teaches that Adam & Chava in Gan Eden were 25 years old, should they also get arrested?